Ernst, an experienced scuba diver who had just completed her 500th dive in May, was standing on a ladder to get back onto the boat when the shark clamped down on her left calf. She hit the predator with her hand to scare it off and made it back onto the ship, but she knew her leg could not be saved. A crew member administered first aid by tying a tourniquet around her leg that “kept her from bleeding to death,” according to a GoFundMe page.
Ernst was taken to Rand Memorial Hospital and then transported by air ambulance to Jackson Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, where doctors were forced to amputate her leg because of the extent of the injury and the high risk of infection. Ernst, who has worked as a physical therapist for nearly four decades, said, “I decided with the surgeon to take my leg off. It was evident that it could not be saved.”
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Ernst has been diving for 11 years off the coast of Grand Bahama Island and has never feared sharks. “They haven’t shown any aggressive behavior toward divers,” Ernst told The Gazette. “They swim around us. We take pictures of them. They don’t threaten us… I’ve never felt any danger.” Ernst’s Facebook page is filled with photos capturing her underwater adventures, including multiple encounters with giant sharks. She does not blame the shark that bit her and has no plans to turn her back on diving, which she called her “biggest passion.”
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Ernst has undergone six surgeries, the latest one on Thursday to close up her stump. She will remain in the Miami hospital through next week before returning home to Marshalltown, Iowa, to continue her recovery, which will involve physical therapy and being fitted for a prosthesis down the road. “I can do this,” Ernst said.
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